A capacitive touch panel includes an insulator such as glass, coated with a conductive coating. As the human body is also an electrical conductor, touching the surface of the panel results in a distortion of the panel's electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance. A transparent touch panel may be combined with a display such as a liquid crystal panel to form a touchscreen. A projected capacitive (PROCAP) touch panel allows finger or other touches to be sensed through a protective layer in front of the conductive coating. The protective layer increases durability, while the ability to sense touches through an insulator allows a user to operate the touch panel while wearing gloves or the like.
FIGS. 1(a) to 1(g) illustrate an example of a related art projected capacitive touch panel, e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 8,138,425, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Referring to FIG. 1(a), substrate 11, x-axis conductor 12 for rows, insulator 13, y-axis conductor 14 for columns, and conductive traces 15 are provided. Substrate 11 may be a transparent material such as glass. X-axis conductors 12 and y-axis conductors 14 may be a transparent conductive coating, typically indium tin oxide (ITO). Insulator 13 may be any insulating material (for example, silicon nitride), which inhibits conductivity between x-axis conductors 12 and y-axis conductors 14. Traces 15 provide electrical conductivity between each of the plurality of conductors and a signal processor (not shown).
Referring to FIG. 1(b), x-axis conductor 12 (e.g., ITO) is formed on substrate 11. The ITO is coated in a continuous layer on substrate 11 and then is subjected to a first photolithography process in order to pattern the ITO into x-axis conductors 12. FIG. 1(c) illustrates cross-section A-A′ of FIG. 1(b), including x-axis conductor 12 formed on substrate 11. Referring to FIG. 1(d), insulator 13 is then formed on the substrate 11 over x-axis channel(s) of x-axis conductor 12. FIG. 1(e) illustrates cross-section B-B′ of FIG. 1(d), including insulator 13 which is formed on substrate 11 and x-axis conductor 12. The insulator islands 13 shown in FIGS. 1(d)-(e) are formed by depositing a continuous layer of insulating material (e.g., silicon nitride) on the substrate 11 over the conductors 12, and then subjecting the insulating material to a second photolithography, etching, or other patterning process in order to pattern the insulating material into islands 13. Referring to FIG. 1(f), y-axis conductors 14 are then formed on the substrate over the insulator islands 13 and x-axis conductors. The ITO is coated on substrate 11 over 12, 13, and then is subjected to a third photolithography or other patterning process in order to pattern the ITO into y-axis conductors 14. While most of y-axis conductor material 14 is formed directly on substrate 11, the y-axis channel is formed on insulator 13 to inhibit conductivity between x-axis conductors 12 and y-axis conductors 14. FIG. 1(g) illustrates cross-section C-C′ of FIG. 1(f), including part of a y-axis conductor 14, which is formed on the substrate 11 over insulator island 13 and over an example x-axis conductor 12. It will be appreciated that the process of manufacturing the structure shown in FIGS. 1(a)-(g) requires three deposition steps and three photolithography type processes, which can render the process of manufacture burdensome, inefficient, and costly.
FIG. 1(h) illustrates another example of an intersection of x-axis conductor 12 and y-axis conductor 14 according to a related art projected capacitive touch panel. Referring to FIG. 1(h), an ITO layer is formed on the substrate 11 and can then be patterned into x-axis conductors 12 and y-axis conductors 14 in a first photolithography process. Then, an insulating layer is formed on the substrate and is patterned into insulator islands 13 in a second photolithography or etching process. Then, a metal conductive layer is formed on the substrate 11 over 12-14 and is patterned into conductive bridges 16 in a third photolithography process. Metal bridge 16 provides electrical conductivity for a y-axis conductor 14 over an x-axis conductor 12. Again, this process of manufacture requires three deposition steps and three different photolithography processes.
The projected capacitive touch panels illustrated in FIG. 1(a) through 1(h) may be mutual capacitive devices and self-capacitive devices.
In a mutual capacitive device, there is a capacitor at every intersection between an x-axis conductor 12 and a y-axis conductor 14 (or metal bridge 16). A voltage is applied to x-axis conductors 12, while the voltage of y-axis conductors 14 is measured (and/or vice versa). When a user brings a finger or conductive stylus close to the surface of the device, changes in the local electrostatic field reduce the mutual capacitance. The capacitance change at every individual point on the grid can be measured to accurately determine the touch location.
In a self-capacitive device, the x-axis conductors 12 and y-axis conductors 14 operate essentially independently. With self-capacitance, the capacitive load of a finger or the like is measured on each x-axis conductor 12 and y-axis conductor 14 by a current meter.
As shown in FIGS. 1(g) and 1(h), related art projected capacitive touch panels require at least three thin film layers (for example, an ITO layer(s), insulator, and another ITO layer or metal bridge) formed on substrate 11 in making the touch-sensitive structure, and possibly a further protective layer(s) thereover. And each thin film layer typically has its own photolithography and/or laser patterning process, which can increase production costs and/or time.
As described above, transparent conductors 12 and 14 are typically indium tin oxide (ITO), which is a costly material. Thin layers of ITO also have a high sheet resistance (at least about 100 ohms/square). In order for an ITO layer to have a sheet resistance less than 5 ohms/sq., the layer typically must be thick (for example, greater than 400 nm). A thick layer of ITO is both more costly and less transparent. Thus, the high sheet resistance of thin layers of ITO can limit its use in layouts requiring long narrow traces on large format touch panels (for example, panels with a diagonal measurement of more than 5 inches). It will be appreciated that there exists a need in the art to address one or more of the above-identified problems.
These and other limitations may be overcome by a projected capacitive touch panel with a silver-inclusive transparent conductive layer(s), where the silver-inclusive layer may be sandwiched between at least first and second dielectric layers. Certain example embodiments relate to designs that incorporate one or more low-emissivity (low-E), Ag-based coatings to create a large area transparent touch electrode (LATTE) that can handle multi-touch points. Mutual capacitance and self-capacitance designs are disclosed herein. The low-E coatings described herein may be less than half as costly as their ITO counterparts, and they may offer a better resistivity/transmission tradeoff, making them more readily usable in large applications.
In certain example embodiments of this invention, there is provided a capacitive touch panel. First and second substrates (e.g., glass substrates) are substantially parallel and spaced apart from one another. At least one multi-layer transparent conductive coating is patterned into a plurality of electrodes and located between the first and second substrates. The at least one multi-layer transparent conductive coating includes at least one conductive layer comprising silver, a dielectric layer comprising zinc oxide under and directly contacting the conductive layer comprising silver, and a dielectric layer(s) comprising tin oxide or silicon nitride over the conductive layer comprising silver. Processing circuitry is electrically connected to the plurality of electrodes and configured to measure an aspect of the electrodes' capacitance. A laminate material is located between the first and second substrates.
Display assemblies including capacitive touch panels also are contemplated herein. In addition to the capacitive touch panel, a display assembly according to certain example embodiments may include a flat panel display device (e.g., an LCD device) connected thereto.
The silver-inclusive transparent conductive coating may include, in order moving away from the substrate that supports it: a first silicon-based layer, a first dielectric layer, a second dielectric layer split by a third dielectric layer so as to form first and second portions of the second dielectric layer, a silver layer over and directly contacting the second portion of the second dielectric layer, an upper contact layer comprising an oxide of nickel and/or chromium directly over and contacting the silver layer, a fourth dielectric layer, and a second silicon-based layer, wherein the third dielectric layer comprises either titanium oxide or tin oxide.